Seven Astonian days of merriment and wonder.
The latest games moved for TV announcement has been made. Most clubs get given a list. In our case it’s “All of them”.
Roberto Olabe (Monchi’s replacement, remember?) has finally been granted a work permit. Coming over here, taking our jobs…
The Netherlands beat Lithuania 4-0. Three of the goals were nothing special; the fourth was scored by Donyell Malen. Even in internationals our players don’t do ordinary. Scotland somehow get to the World Cup finals thanks to John McGinn and ten mortals. Also going will be Leandro Bacuna, captain of Curacao, the smallest nation to ever get to the finals. More importantly our players return from most points of the globe in one piece.
Meanwhile, in a mindset far away from civilisation someone plays a trick on the wretched group know as the Small Heath support. There they were, getting all worked up about the Great Reveal of their new stadium, when they’re shown the plans for an extended Tyseley incinerator. What a let-down, eh chaps?
I know he’s the Omnipresent and can do no wrong, but can someone fathom out what Unai means here, “I never feel favourites. Brentford lost, Sunderland draw, Everton draw, Tottenham we won, Liverpool we lost. Were we favourites against those? Brentford favourites? Tottenham? Sunderland? I know we can lose, I know we can win. I speak about this in the dressing room.” Anyone?
Just when you thought it was all over there’s some story breaking that West Midlands’ finest were acting on false information when they banned Maccabi supporters. No they can’t have a replay; the first game was bad enough.
The weekend’s fun begins with the under-16s beating Leicester 10-0, with four goals and two assists for Heaven Kilwa. No pressure. Then a few Premier League matches go the way we’d have liked so we can go top four when we beat Leeds.
And strike me down if we don’t do just that. The weather matched the surroundings matched the opposition and the state of the pitch raised a few eyebrows, particularly bearing in mind what the other lot tend to play like. Still, no problem. Ezri Konsa wasn’t injured after all and just give them a goal start then begin to play. The best keeper in the world made a bit of a cock-up before making up for it twice over. We were still losing at half-time but we had quality on the bench and Unai to put it on the pitch.
Donyell Malen lays on a goal for Morgan Rogers that was the best close-range tap-in you’ll ever see. Then Rogers hit a free-kick of such precision that even Match of the Day commented on it. They had one disallowed and five players booked, which should have been more. We had nobody injured, which in the circumstances was little short of a miracle. Up to fourth and joy of joys, the match after ours went the right way so fourth was where we stayed. And will stay for the rest of the season at the very least.
